Chapter I
Where Am I?
The light blinded her as someone opened the roof of her cage. She must've been living in the dark for ages because the sunlight blinded her. Someone grabbed the back of her dress and lifted her up like a doll before placing her on the soft grass. She heard whispers and shuffling as people moved in to get a closer look at her.
"Better get up now before the sun sets and the challengers come out to play," Someone said to her as they pulled her up. She started into bright blue eyes, hair a deep purple. "The name is Ike, do you know yours?"
The girl shook her head before the two boys who held onto her arms let go. She rubbed her shoulders and noticed she was wearing white gloves with sparkly curls decorating the top of her hand and making its way to her fingertips and elbows. She looked up and saw close to forty people staring at her. She turned to see a large tree that stood in front of a stone wall that was opened. In fact, she walked past Ike and noticed the stone wall surrounded them and the only exit was the large hole behind the tree. An extremely large size stone castle was on the left, the red flag flowing in the breeze on the top showed signs of a storm coming.
"Where am I?" The girl asked.
"We call it Section 7. Outside that gate is twelve more areas but challengers begin to roam the sections once the sun begins to set in the east. Once that gate closes, they can't get in and we can't get out," Ike explained.
"Challengers?"
"They're savages who look exactly like us except… they're not us…" A women wearing a blue jumpsuit who had her long blond hair in a ponytail spoke up. "If they see us the chances of us surviving are slim."
"What do they do?"
"Challenge us!" A man with blue hair said harshly. "Can't say I blame them… but whoever sent us here likes playing damn jokes on us because those things will rip you to shreds if you can't defeat your own challenger."
"That's how we lost Daisy…" A girl dressed in all pink cried. "The challengers will morph to look like us and copy every move we make until they find our weakness and use it against us!"
"Alright, enough. Give the girl a break, she just got out of the hole," Ike called out.
"No… tell me everything. Why am I here?"
"Same reason we all are, except we haven't figured out that part yet either. Mario here has been here the longest, almost 10 years. The others who came with him are already dead." Ike pointed at a short man with a thick black mustache wearing a red hat who was sitting on a tree trunk. "His brother, Luigi, is over there. Mario's fiancé is Peach, she'll take you up to your new room in the castle."
"Of course I will! Rosalina and Samus will be happy to share a room with you!" The girl in all pink gushed. She grabbed the girl's hand and walked her into the castle, the stares from the others stabbed the girl's back and she shuddered.
"How long have you been here?"
"About six years. Ike and Mario have been here the longest… I was the first female to appear from the Cage then came Samus, Rosalina, Palutena, Lucina, and now you. Don't worry, your memories should come back in a while. I didn't know my name until a few hours later," Peach explained. They walked up a spiral staircase covered in red carpet and headed down a stone covered hallway wrapped in red and gold. Peach stopped in front of a white door. She opened it and pushed the girl in. The room was lit with candles and contained four beds, each a different color from its sisters. Peach opened the curtains to let the last bit of sunlight in and started a fire in the fireplace.
"Its not much since Rosalina and Samus are explores and are almost never in here to decorate. The light blue bed is Rosalina's and the dark blue one is Samus'. I forgot to mention that Rosalina has a pet star named Luma. He's pretty cute when he wants to be, other times he's just… you know… a pain," Peach babbled. The girl sat on a bed covered in purple. Peach waited by the door and watched the girl take in the room. It was arranged in a circular area where the beds circled the outer area of the room leaving a circle carpet in the middle of the room. Rocking chairs sat by the fire and both girls who occupied the room had each hung artwork of some sort on their side of the wall. Rosalina had a star chart hanging by her bed and Samus had gun cleaning tools on her desk. The girl stood up and walked down the hallway before almost bumping into a boy with hair as white as snow.
"Pardon me," He replied, his face blocked out by a book he was too busy interested in. He walked past both girls and made his way down the hall.
"That's Robin. He's our mapmaker and bookworm," Peach said.
"Each of you have a specific job?" The girl asked.
"Oh yes, many of us stay here and work in the gardens, tend the animals or cook food but some like Rosalina, Samus and even Robin work outside Section 7. Samus for instance is an explorer. She goes through the other sections each day looking for clues on how to escape. However, no one was able to leave because the Watchers told us you were showing up."
"Watchers?"
"They're the ones in control of the sections and send us supplies and people. When someone dies they send someone new. Supplies comes in once a week and Section 12, the other section that Challengers won't walk into is opened the day after supplies come in. That's where Rosalina's job comes in. Section 12 is the star gazing tower. Rosalina and Fox go there to look at the stars to see if they give us any clues of helping us escape. Section 12 is also our healing center. If any of us are in critical danger they're sent there once the gates open and a fairy will appear and heal them," Peach explained as she took the girl outside into the gardens. A few people were pulling weeds or watering plants. Mario's brother was pulling weeds near the door. He looked up and waved at Peach who waved back. A girl with long green hair walked up to them, her dress dirty from dirt and grass.
"This is the new meat?" The girl asked.
"This is Palutena, the Garden Guardian," Peach introduced the girl. Palutena smiled and hugged the girl.
"Your dress is stunning, I love your hair… and that crown!" Palutena exclaimed.
"Oh… thanks…" The girl replied. Peach grabbed her hand and pulled her away from Palutena.
"She's kinda of a nut case. Anyway what kind of powers do you have?" Peach asked the girl.
"I… I don't really know."
"She's an archer." The girl turned to see a boy dressed in all green. He walked up to her and bowed. "Sorry to frighten you but you've haunted my dreams over the years, Princess. My name is Link."
"I'm a princess?" The girl asked. Peach shrugged. The girl walked over to the little pond in the garden and looked at her reflection. Her hair was long that ended near her bottom back and was braided up to her shoulders and wrapped in a gold ribbon. She wore a purple colored dressed that overlapped a white bottom and had a beautiful symbolic top to cover the white skirt. Her tiara was gold and contained different jewels. Her skin was pale but her eyes were a beautiful mocha color. Her ears were long and pointy like Link's. The girl twirled.
"Yeah… it takes a while to sink in that you're almost too beautiful to be real," Peach replied and blushed. The girl smiled at her and felt an odd feeling twisting in her mind. Whispers echoed her brain and moved out though her ears and heart. Link watched the girl as she walked around the gardens. Palutena watched her from the corner of her eye as someone spoke to her about the fruit.
"Who is in charge?" The girl asked.
"Ike and Mario since they've been here the longest and killed the most Challengers," Peach replied. The girl nodded and opened the black gate that led to the front of the castle. She saw Ike and Mario unpacking whatever came with her from the Cage. A wolf dressed in all black was standing beside a fox who's tail twitched with the wind. The girl walked towards them and Ike looked up.
"Found your weapon. Link said he saw you in his dreams sometimes and searched through the Cage until he found what he was looking for," Ike said to her before pulling out a bag full of arrows and two semi-large brown cases.
"Is it normal for someone to dream about someone they don't know?" The girl asked him as she sat down on the grass and opened one of the cases.
"Our dreams are actually past memories from before we ended up here. Link swore he was your protector and you ruled over someplace called Hyrule. You're one of the guardians of the Triforce. We'll see if that's true when Section 3 opens up tomorrow morning." Zelda pulled out a beautifully decorated bow. She opened the other case and pulled out a gleaming silver sword.
"Tomorrow? What's a triforce?" The girl asked.
"It's up in Section 3. The Guardians of it are the only ones who can touch it at the moment. Ganondorf and Link are the only two who can right now. After they touched it, the dreams started to appear and both of them recognized you once we pulled you out of the Cage," Ike replied.
"THE GATE IS CLOSING!" Someone cried out. The girl heard the whine of moving metal as the stone walls behind the great tree started to creak. A large black gate slammed closed and started to hum.
"The Watchers placed an electric current to keep us in and the Challengers out on the gate," Mario said.
"Now what's the story of the tree?" The girl replied.
"I'll show you," Ike replied and motioned for the girl to follow him. She followed Ike to a wooden ladder that hung onto the tree by rope and metal. He climbed until he reached a large wooden deck that was hidden beneath the leaves near the topmost part of the tree. The girl followed him up before Ike helped her on her feet. She looked out and saw all 12 sections that they were talking about from over the gate. It was like looking at a giant maze with each section as a large dead end from outside Section 7. She noticed the star gazing section first and made a circle around the deck to look at each section.
"Beautiful huh? The Watchers made sure that we couldn't see the Challengers from up here so we could for at least a moment pretend that our lives are happy," Ike said to her. The girl's heart thumped rapidly. Her mind was set on exploring the other sections and testing out her two weapons the Watchers gave her. The whispers continued to invade her thoughts.
Hyrule is in danger.
Save us, Princess.
The end of the world is coming.